It is customary in heat treating small parts to treat them in batches by placing a batch of such parts in a heat treatment basket and immersing in a furnace. This method of handling parts often encounters problems of consistency in the heat treatment of all parts, with some being over- or under-heat treated due to the inconsistent distribution of parts throughout the batch and resulting unequal exposure to a constant temperature and process conditions.
It would be desirable to provide a material handling unit which enables parts to be individually and consistently heat treated.